Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/170

170THE HALLIG.

shall be a burning coal to every girl who has not the
courage to follow your example.

   "' A little hut on a little sod,
    A husband and a little dog,
    Some sorry sheep with wool like hair,
    Black bread and tea for daily fare;
    Whose fancy adds to the above,
    Knows nothing of Idalia's love I'"

  Idalia remarked, that if her worthy brother should
hereafter condescend to make verses upon her himself,
she hoped they would be more refined and polished,
both as to manner and matter. But at the same time
she laughed at Oswald's jests, and the pain which God-
ber felt at this repressed his rising anger, and he choked
back the bitter answer which rose to his lips. Mander
saw that he was pale and trembling, and said to him
kindly,
  "Our friend here, does not take pleasantry so readily
as he uses it ;" and then added, gravely, "for myself I
can never speak contemptuously of a place which was
once so welcome to us. It would be hard for Godber to
leave his home, for the love of it seems to become sec-
ond nature to all who were born here. But he is, at
the same time, too reasonable not to suppose Idalia to
have her local attachments as well, and, therefore, he
will not expect from her, a sacrifice which he finds him-
self incapable of making ; especially when he must
confess that to give the hallig the preference to Ham-
burg, would be possible only for a native of the island."
  Godber was deeply agitated by these remarks. It
had never entered his mind that, happy as he now felt
himself on his hallig, perhaps Idalia could only find